Most web applications typically implement multiple layers of functionality to operate. For example, a common web application may use a database layer, an application server layer and the actual web application layer. Components within each of these layers may have their own resource preferences, dependencies, and so forth. Additionally, these components may operate on a single machine or may operate on different machines. In traditional computing platforms, to launch a new application, an administrator writes application code, selects support components, determines nodes that the application and components will run on, installs the application and components on the nodes, and configures the application and components to work with each other. To launch an application using traditional computing platforms accordingly may be time consuming and prone to error. Moreover, when services relied upon by the application change, the administrator typically manually reconfigures the application and its support components to account for such changes.